Your Blind Spot (2)

Daily Devotions

May 02, 2015

“Who can discern his errors?” Ps 19:12 NIV

Sometimes trying to see the truth about yourself is like trying to see inside your own eyeballs. “Who can discern his errors?” the Psalmist asked. Fortunately, you’re not left on your own. The Spirit is already at work in you. Your job is simply to listen and respond. Guilt isn’t your enemy, sin is. God’s Spirit will often bring a sense of conviction. And when it does, the proper response isn’t to try and suppress the guilt but to deal with the issue. When you don’t, those issues can build up like cholesterol in your arteries. At a moment of great crisis, Samson arose to exert his strength, “But he did not know that the Lord had left him” (Jdg 16:20 NIV). He’d become callous and lost his sensitivity to God. The body has an amazing capacity to warn us about what ails it, if we learn to read the signs. Chest pains may indicate heart trouble. And there are more subtle clues. Yellow bumps on your eyelids can mean high cholesterol; a diagonal crease in your earlobe is linked to risk of heart attack. In the same way, God will enable you to find the truth about your soul if you’re open and willing. Left to your own thinking, you will usually rationalize or defend yourself. You’ll “call evil good and good evil” (Isa 5:20 NIV). On the other extreme, you can become a neurotic over-analyzer. Madame Guyon warned against “depending on the diligence of your own scrutiny rather than on God for the knowledge and discovery of our sin.” What’s the answer? Allow your thoughts and responses to be guided by the Holy Spirit.